HAVING REGARD
to Article 5 b) of the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development of 14 December 1960;

HAVING REGARD
to the Recommendation of the Council on a General Employment and Manpower
Policy [C(76)37];

HAVING REGARD
to the Recommendation of the Council on Gender Equality in Education,
Employment and Entrepreneurship [C/MIN(2013)5/FINAL];

WELCOMING the
reports towards an Active Society delivered by the OECD since the 1980s and the
major in-depth OECD multi-country review of ageing and employment policies
conducted since 2003;

CONSIDERING that
important steps have already been taken by governments, employers, trade unions
and non-governmental organisations to put forward policies and initiatives for
reform in the following three broad areas: i) strengthening incentives to carry
on working; ii) tackling employment barriers on the side of employers; and iii)
improving the employability of workers;

RECOGNISING that
there remains considerable scope for further progress towards the objective of
an integrated and comprehensive policy approach to achieve longer and better
working lives and boost labour market prospects for older people;

RECOGNISING that
strong and effective actions by governments, employers, trade unions and
non-governmental organisations are still needed in both the public and private
sectors to remove the obstacles to longer and better working lives and monitor
the progress in achieving this goal together, including by supporting the
efforts of developing and emerging countries;

On the proposal of the Employment, Labour and Social
Affairs Committee:

I. RECOMMENDS that Members and non-Members having adhered to this
Recommendation (hereafter the “Adherents”) strengthen incentives for workers to
build up longer careers and to continue working at an older age. To this
effect, Adherents should, as appropriate:

a) enhance incentives to continue working at an older age:

i) by
ensuring that the old-age pension system encourages and rewards later
retirement in line with increased life expectancy while ensuring adequacy and
sustainability of pension payments; and

ii) by encouraging longer and more satisfying careers through more
flexibility in work-retirement transitions, including by promoting phased
retirement, better balancing work and care and permitting a combination of
pensions with work income

b) restrict the use of publicly-funded early-retirement schemes which encourage workers to leave employment while they
are still in good health and able to work;

c) ensure access to welfare benefits, such as unemployment and disability
benefits, for all workers, irrespective of their age and status, and monitor that these benefits are used for their
original purpose and not to incentivise early retirement for those still able
to work.

II. RECOMMENDS that Adherents encourage employers to retain and hire
older workers. To this effect, Adherents should, as appropriate:

a) address discrimination in employment on the basis of age by takingmeasures, such as legislation
preventing age discrimination and public-awareness campaigns, to eliminate
discrimination in the recruitment, promotion and training process, and in
employment retention in collaboration and consultation with employers’ and
workers’ representatives;

b) take a balanced approach to employment protection by ensuring that age is not a criterion in determining
the level of employment protection while promoting better access to quality
jobs for older workers;

c) seek to discourage or further restrict mandatory retirement by employers in close consultation and collaboration
with employers’ and workers’ representatives, while respecting in a limited
number of instances that such practices may be necessary;

d) encourage employer and worker representatives to identify mechanisms to
facilitate the retention and hiring of all older workers, even those in vulnerable situations, including
reviewing their practices in setting pay to reflect productivity and
competences, not age;

e) encourage good practice by employers in managing an age-diverse
workforce through public and private
initiatives that provide guidance on issues such as promoting a sharing of
knowledge and experience across different age groups and adjusting work
responsibilities and working-time arrangements to the changing capacities of
workers and their family responsibilities over their life course as well as to
take account of improvements in the education, health and physical capacities
of older workers.

III. RECOMMENDS that Adherents promote the employability of workers
throughout their working lives with a view to strengthening employment
opportunities at an older age. To this effect, Adherents should as appropriate:

a) enhance participation in training by workers throughout their working
lives by providing guidance services
and ensuring that training is adjusted to reflect the experience and learning
needs of workers at different ages, includingstrengthening access to
work-based training for thosein non-standard forms of work, encouraging
increased investment in skills development at mid-career and improving the
attractiveness of training and its potential returns for older workers by
adapting teaching and learning methods and content to their needs;

b) provide effective employment assistance to jobseekers, irrespective of their age, but targeted at those
groups most at risk of long-term joblessness while ensuring thatolder
jobseekers have the same obligations as younger jobseekers for receiving
unemployment benefits in terms of actively seeking a job, but also the same
rights in terms of access to targeted re-employment services;

c) improve working conditionsthrough a broad-based strategy to
enhance job quality for workers at all ages, in terms of strengthening workplace safety and physical and mental
health, reducing the incidence of hazardous and arduous work, balancing
professional and family responsibilities, and facilitating job mobility as a
function of the changing experience and capacities of workers.

IV. INVITES the Secretary-General to disseminate this Recommendation.

V. INVITES Adherents to disseminate this Recommendation.

VI. INVITES non-Adherents to take account of and adhere to this Recommendation.

VII. INSTRUCTS the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee
to:

a) serve
periodically or at the request of Adherents as a forum for an exchange of views
and a structured sharing of experiences and good practices on matters related
to the Recommendation;

b) support
the efforts of Adherents to implement this Recommendation through comparative
data, analytical studies and measurable policy indicators;

c) monitor
progress and policy development, including through the use of relevant
indicators, in the follow up to this Recommendation and report thereon to the
Council no later than five years following its adoption and regularly
thereafter.